Monthly Archives: October 2016

Congratulations to Gabriella in year 10 for her success in synchronised ice skating. Together, with other members of her team, representing GB, she won the French Masters (International) Championships in Lyon, France. This was their first International competition and they were competing against the French and Swiss National teams.

Congratulations to Eloise and her sailing partner (from another school), who have, as one of 9 boats, been selected for the RYA UK Junior Squad – Feva. This is the National U14 squad, which is an Olympic pathway squad. It is the highest level that sailor’s of Eloise’s age can reach and is a fantastic achievement. This is going to be an amazing opportunity for the two girls to develop their skills and to sail as part of the UK Junior Squad at the next RS Feva World Championships in July 2017 in Holland. Eloise has just finished her first coaching session as a member of the UK Junior Squad in Weymouth, this weekend. We would all like to wish her luck and look forward to hearing how she gets on. Good luck Eloise.

The Vienna trip group have returned safely from their joint history and German study visit to Vienna. The girls explored the sights, including the iconic ferris wheel, the Austrian military history museum, the Klimt exhibition at Belvedere, Schoenbrunn palace and climbing 343 steps to the top of the Stephansdom south tower (still recovering from that!) They also enjoyed a talk given by Mr. Roberts’ son, Mark, about working for the UN in Vienna and were inspired to learn that a languages degree does not have to take you in to teaching!

Our pupils were fabulous throughout the trip and their excellent behaviour was commented upon by the hotel staff. Special thanks to Mrs. Ogunmyiwa, Mr. Dickson and Mrs. Crowson for their hard work and constant good humour.

On Friday 21st October the newly elected school council reps had their training session.

After Wednesday’s election this was the first time that students from each year group were able to get together and build their team working skills and explore some of the issues that school council will be focusing on this academic year.

Year groups began with the spaghetti tower challenge to help consider the different skills they may need as school council reps and to get to know one another better.

Following this challenge each year group worked on their focus. This is a task to get the school council reps started and to allow them time to gather other ideas from their own forms.

The focuses for this year are:

Year 7: Transition – How can we make your journey from primary to secondary better?

Year 8: Improving the library

Year 9: The Wellbeing Room

Year 10: Merit criteria and award assemblies

Year 11: The Pupil Blog Page

Make sure you keep an ear out from your form’s reps and keep a check on the Pupil Voice page for further School Council updates.

Biology Quiz

On Tuesday the Sixth Form Science Society ran a tricky biology quiz for some of our younger pupils, testing them on everything from why fish float to how much DNA we share with bananas!

Fly Lab

After school on Tuesday 37 girls stayed behind to participate in three workshops run by Manchester University’s Fly Lab. They learnt how different mutations in fruit flies contributed to our understanding of genetic inheritance, how the age of a fruit fly affects its ability to climb and how mutant flies can be temporarily paralysed by temperature and shaking, providing useful models for epilepsy studies.

You Are What You Eat

On Wednesday Professor Roberts gave a fascinating lunchtime lecture on gut bacteria and the human diet. He explained how the variety of gut flora changes very quickly if our diet changes and how certain bacteria may even contribute to obesity.

Skype a Zoologist

On Thursday we linked up with London Zoo for a lunchtime Q&A session with Dr Monika Bohm. She discussed her own research and the conservation work of the zoo, trying to preserve endangered species from around the world.

Dissection Masterclass

After school on Thursday we ran the ever-popular dissection masterclass. Students learnt dissection skills and were able to see the internal organs of a rat and how intricately they fit together.

STEM Treasure Hunt

On Friday 14 teams of intrepid treasure hunters ran around school trying to spot the hidden goat pictures. Each picture had an amazing animal fact on it and the girls had to match this to the animal on their quiz sheet. Congratulations to Amalie, Rabiah, Amira and Alekhya from 7-3, Libby from 7-5 and Nrishi and Aveesha from 7-7 who spotted the most goats around school!

Photography Competition

The theme of our photography competition this year was Nature Up Close and the standard was really high. After a lot of debate the winning entry was awarded to Gabrielle H from 10-5.

Close runners-up included Mariam S from 10-5, Tabitha H from 10-2 and Sudiksha D from 12-5.

Look out for prints of all the pictures appearing in biology labs over the next few weeks!

This week saw the showcasing of the talents of 160 performers across 10 different classes at AGGS in our 2nd Music Festival. Both the Church Hall and the Main Hall were buzzing with performances throughout the day, with hundreds of girls able to watch as audience members during the day.

Our 2 adjudicators, Mr Tom Dickinson (Wirral Boys’ GS) and Mrs Kathy Rundell (Wilmslow Prep) gave expert verbal and written feedback to the girls and we are hugely grateful to them in giving of their time to support AGGS in this way.

Thanks too go to Miss Riddle, Mrs Dickinson and Ms Mayall who accompanied over 70 performances and to all the instrumental staff who prepared pupils, including some lovely ensemble arrangements. Endangered instruments was a theme of this year’s festival, with a class showcasing oboe, viola and brass players.

This kind of event wouldn’t be possible without the help of so many administrative staff and parent steward helpers. Particular thanks to Mrs Marshall and Miss Wright who took charge of the adjudicator administration during the day and to Mr Beddow and the caretaking staff for setting up the halls.

All performers should be proud of their performances and have earned a merit towards their form total, in addition to hopefully enjoying the experience of performing in a music festival and gaining more confidence along the way.

Today my year 7 class had to work together to create unusual, whacky plant forms.

They were given a piece of A5 paper and folded it into three sections. The first person had to draw half a flower head or plant, then pass it along. The second person drew the other half of the plant and the third did the stalk, stem or grasses.

The results were fantastic. Creative, fun and it helped each student push their ideas that little bit further by having someone else’s ideas and inspiration integrated into their work. They had to think quickly and take risks, not being too precious about their drawing.